Sho Minazuki
Sho Minazuki is a character appearing in Persona 4: Ultimax, and the main antagonist. He claims to be the culprit behind the Red Mist incident in Inaba. While Sho himself cannot use a Persona, and is jealous of Persona users, he has a second personality that can use the Persona Tsukiyomi. Appearance Sho appears to be a young man with short bright red hair, grey eyes with rings circling his pupils similar to Aigis and Labrys, and a very pale complexion. He has an x-shaped scar across his face, which is close in design to Master Daidara or Takahisa Kandori. Strangely, the scar glows in the arcade ending. He wears the coat of the Yasogami High uniform around his waist, with a dark green collared shirt and a yellow armband with a black star on his left arm and yellow sneakers. His "TV world glasses" are shown to be a pair of shades. He also sports a pair of dual katanas that have triggers on them as an aesthetic touch. Both katanas also have serrated edges near the handles/hilts. His eyelids also have small spikes drawn on like make-up, similar to Alex from A Clockwork Orange. In the true ending, after the defeat of Hinokagutsuchi, Sho's eyes and scar glow and turn blue, likely from the Plume of Dusk embedded in him while Minazuki sacrificed himself destroying Hinokagutsuchi and gives Sho the ability to summon a Persona. But beforehand, it was due to being granted with his power that Sho's eyes occasionally glowed red instead. His eyes and scars are also suggested to permanently glow after becoming blue. Personality Due to his lonely and painful past, Sho grows into a young man with vicious streak and very interested in fighting, as he later states that fighting all he knows. He is puerile, flippant, hot-headed, and anxious young man. A loner who dismisses companionship as he mocks Yu Narukami for his "useless" friendship with others, viewing people as weak to rely on such things. He has a habit of throwing a tantrum when something doesn't go as he hoped. Junpei Iori even calls him a brat due to his tantrums. He also harbors an intense jealousy towards Persona users, particularly Yu and Aigis due to their Wild Card ability. Sho is described as a misanthrope, as he loathes humanity and feels it needs to "change" or face destruction. He questions Teddie on why he would ever desire to be human. Due to Shuji Ikutsuki's influence, Sho has a habit of making puns in his manner, which are so terrible that not even Teddie nor Yukiko Amagi find them funny. However, ever since Ikutsuki "threw" Sho away, he felt abandoned, and thus, his nihilistic views grew mixed in with his previous isolation. Despite realizing what Ikutsuki's true nature was like, Sho could barely deny that his surrogate father was all he had in his life. Tohru Adachi also points out it's not very different from what he himself used to think in the past as well as how they ended up with power used for evil. Adachi also feels that Sho could've redeemed himself from this mindset, as the former detective believes his own evil to be more than Sho's could ever have been. However, the other Sho, Minazuki, which is the other personality/soul suffused through the Plume of Dusk on the other hand, is composed, methodical, callous, and manipulative. And unlike the former, is capable of summoning a Persona. Minazuki is aware of the normal Sho, and is eventually revealed to be fond and caring of him with both personalities also being aware of each other, with Minazuki going as far trying to kill Ikutsuki for causing Sho to suffer as well as being quick to dismiss others who try to harm Sho the same way (or take advantage of him). Though it would seem the normal Sho's past of constant experimentation is what drives his other soul into believing that like the normal Sho, Minazuki from the Plume of Dusk feels that humanity must meet its end in order to give his other self the peace he needs. Minazuki does not view himself as a split personality, rather seeing himself as an entity born to grant Sho's wish. On the other hand, Sho puts much trust in Minazuki that he tends to be baffled when one can claim they've overpowered him, or when Minazuki cannot be channeled by Sho for some reason. Trivia *Ironically, despite the heavy moon theme in his attacks, name and Persona, Sho's Arcana is the Sun. **And like his arcana, his eyelids have spikes drawn on them in a fashion like make-up, resembling the way suns are usually drawn. This is more apparent during his cut-in when entering Awakening Mode. **However, with his Persona version, the Arcana suddenly changes into the Moon, signifying a two-coin-sided relation between the two versions of Sho, especially through a "day" and "night" motif. ***Ironically, his Persona version also has fire-elemental powers with his moon-themed Persona. *Sho's solo version, Kanji Tatsumi, and Mitsuru Kirijo are the only three characters in the game to have charge-motion special moves (Sho and Kanji only apply in Ultimax while Mitsuru was already a traditional charge-motion character). *Compared to the rest of the characters, Sho is the only character to use in a vein like recent 3-button fighters, a 3-button basic attack layout (with one special button) as opposed to 2 basic attack buttons and 2 avatar-based buttons, similar to some 4-button fighters (with two weak attacks and two strong attacks); though his Persona version no doubt still follows the aforementioned 4-button scheme. *Sho is also the only Persona character to have no moves from the series itself regarding his solo version, as all of his moves are completely original to the Persona series as a whole. He also shares this trait with Teddie, who's whole moveset is also original with no spells (save for his follow up attack). *A notable contrast between the two Shos is the name and title display underneath the Life Bar during a battle. While in his solo form, The Rule-Smashing Pun Machine, his name is Sho, while in his Persona form, The Scar-Faced Dark Messiah, he is referred to as Minazuki. Justified in that in the Japanese version, his name in solo form is written in kanji while in his Persona form, his name is written in katakana, which would be difficult to localize, thus settling for a last name basis. **Also, normal Sho tends to have a very clear smile of anxious energy and possible deranged essence, while Persona Sho tends to have more tame smiles and more serious expressions. **Another difference is their mannerisms. Sho acts impulsively and despises the concept of friendship, while Sho is calm and collected with an interest in Naoto, saying he wished to talk to her again if he got the opportunity, as she was able to figure out his motives. **Further separating each other apart, Sho gives out his first name before fully introducing himself, while Sho gives out his last name before doing the same, which is also another way around localization difficulties. *For some strange reason or another, Sho's eyes are blue, but in his artwork, he is shown with gray eyes. It is possible that, because of the Plume of Dusk, his eyes change colors while engaged in battle, as they do not change until he enters a fight. An example is when Sho executes an SP Skill, as the cut-in image shows him with gray eyes, not blue. 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